How to manage HR change in your business

October 27, 2014

"It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change" - Charles Darwin

Business these days is a bit like the jungle - although in saying that it's probably always been that way. Just in the past twenty years we've bore witness to once techonological giants like Yahoo, Myspace and Blackberry have all plummeted from their perches on the top because failing to recognise their consumer base's constantly changing needs - a failure to adapt. For Honey Software, Human Resources has become the most volatile, quickly evolving field in business today - and businesses that are able to correctly capitalise on this will reap the rewards. Here's some advice from Honey on how best to manage this HR change in your business.

"You must be shapeless, formless, like water... Become like water my friend." - Bruce Lee

Loosen Up.

No kidding! The mind is a powerful asset or a powerful enemy depending on how you make use of it. The more mental effort you put into making yourself mentally flexible, approachable and open to ideas the more your colleagues will emulate you, and therefore your business as well. When the market shifts, which it inevitably will, those businesses that remain the most rigid in their practices and stubborn will likewise inevitably lose their competitiveness. Our first tip on how to manage change well is an intangible one, so sometimes it's hard to recognise, but never underestimate the power of positive thinking. For more food for thought on this, check out this ted talk.

Clear Communication and Transparency at all Levels.

Businesses that want to cope well with rapid change need to cope as a business - To take a silly example, it doesn't matter if your entire board is on board (ha) with your flash new agenda system if your secretary isn't and takes minutes the old way. This is the main reason that small businesses are so successful at capturing niche markets, not because of production capabilities but because of how much easier it is to have ten employees on the exact same page rather than one thousand. When HR starts making major changes in your business, the number one priority is to communicate as succintly and clearly as possible exactly what you're doing to every employee. Not only will you manage major paradigm shifts more smoothly with less admin hiccups, but your employees will appreciate the effort you're putting in to let them know what's up.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

No matter how good you are at what you do, you can't predict the future and you certainly can't prepare for everything that's around the corner. Amazon recently made public their $126 million loss in the second quarter, and most of it's due to them sitting on millions of dollars in stock on their latest endeavour, the "firephone". Of course, this was probably a calculated risk with good odds on Amazon's part, but the moral of the story is that no matter how much funding you pour into advertising and market research, you can't accurately predict the market all the time, and the same applies to Human Resources. What's common practice today could well possibly be obsolete next year. The biggest thing to take away from this is adapting isn't so much about predicting what comes next, it's about the outcome being favourable no matter what.

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Honey is a provider of Human Resources Information Systems and has the understanding of the challenges facing businesses in today’s world. Born out of 23 years’ experience designing, implementing HRIS & Payroll systems. Simple, user-friendly interface delivered via the web.